1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information processing system for connecting a plurality of expansion devices as required, and particularly to an information processing system in which a desired expansion device is selected from a multiple types of expansion devices and connected to connection ports of a system controller.
2. Description of the Related Art
The information processing system has various types of expansion devices connected according to necessity based on a purpose of use. The expansion devices are connected to the connection ports provided on a system controller which provides general, centralized control of the information processing system.
This type of information processing system is conventionally provided with different connection ports on the system controller according to the types of expansion devices to be connected. In other words, the system controller is provided with a dedicated connection port for each expansion device and this port corresponds in a one-to-one relationship to each expansion device to be connected to the connection port.
On the other hand, users of the information processing system need to configure a desired system by combining required expansion devices according to the purpose of using the information processing system. Therefore, it has been demanded that connection ports of the information processing system have general versatility to some extent, so that the system can be configured with flexibility in response to the requirement of a user.
But, as described above, the conventional information processing system has a dedicated connection port to connect each expansion device. Unless the mutually corresponding connection port and expansion device are connected, the expansion device cannot be operated for diagnosis, configuration control and troubleshooting processing. Therefore, the connection port provided to conform with a particular expansion device cannot be used to connect another type of expansion device.
Accordingly, the conventional information processing system has a disadvantage that each user cannot connect a desired expansion device to the system controller to flexibly configure a desired system.